Prof. Segev is known as one of Israel’s most prominent and
enthusiastic neuroscientists, whose oft-quoted motto “Attack the Brain” is in
fact a fair embodiment of his research aspirations. Segev forewent many
commercial seductions and lucrative management roles in pursuit of his passion
in research. He has spent no less than several decades on Hebrew University’s
Givat Ram campus, where he received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and
biology, his Master’s of Science degree in neurobiology and his doctorate in
experimental and theoretical neurobiology.
Along with a 6-strong force of PhD. students, Segev is
currently working on elucidating a versatile array of grey matter’s enigmas
with a mathematical touch, from how the brain computes information and how
synapses are formed to the sets of rules which guide this formation in healthy
and ailed brains. For him, the pinnacle of this research would be an effective
ability to simulate our findings in a working computational model. But for this
to succeed, he says, we must truly “attack the brain” from all directions,
which would require a combined effort on the part of an immense plethora of
experts hailing from all doctrines.
This is why Prof. Segev, a personal friend of Human Brain
Project’s Henry Markram and one of the original participants in the HBP’s
prototype Blue Brain, seemed to fit like a puzzle piece into the mind-set of
EU’s colossal initiative. He was chosen to lead the Simulation Platform project
of HBP, and his Hebrew University lab was one of 130 initially selected to lay
the foundations for the assignment. Perhaps rather modestly for a researcher in
such a costly field as neuroscience, Prof. Segev says the €130,000 over 30
months which was isolated for his lab’s research by HBP will be perfectly
sufficient to make significant progress. Dashing new facilities and a few more
PhD students at HU’s new Edmund and Lily Safra Brain Centre, which began
construction in May of 2013, will certainly help. As he jokes about the new
sound-proof windows just installed in his current office, Prof. Segev says he
is immensely excited about observing the stone-throw-away construction of the
new center over the next three years, which he personally helped design.
Brushing off HBP opponents’ fears about the difficulty of
processing the massive amounts of data collected from thousands of
facilities around the globe which the HBP aims to tackle, Prof.
Segev brings up the example of the terabytes of data generated by star
observation, which has been managed extremely well once solid, standardized
models were in place. Neuroscientists are by no means oblivious of this problem,
and huge initiatives to devise complex statistical models and collaborative
software are underway. Global cooperation, however, is a crucial key to HBP’s
progress. This is why the project has been sliced up into so many research
layers: whilst Segev’s lab is working on elucidating inter-neuronal
physiological behavior, a lab in Edinburgh University headed by Prof. Seth
Grant is working on mapping the thousands of molecules innate to the brain, at
the same time as a leading Institute Pasteur neuroscientist slash philosopher
Jean-Pierre Changeux is exploring the relationship between the physical brain
and the cognitive mind. Eventually, superimposing the findings of these various
“HBP Pillars” will lead to an altogether new map of the brain where hundreds of
parameters can be tied together to from an altogether new understanding of the
neuronal microcosm.
Speaking about the global neurotechnology environment, Prof.
Segev says that he has very little faith in Big Pharma’s strides to develop
neurological drugs, particularly because such painful blows have been sustained
by the industry in CNS developments in recent years. He says that there is no
future for neuropharmaceuticals in Big Pharma, certainly not for the way in
which these companies conduct drug discovery research. Rather, he says, for the
time being medical devices will become clear leaders in the neuro-therapeutic
field, until (his) research yields more insight into the underlying causes of
brain disease.
On President Peres’s initiative to brand Israel as a
neuro-hub, Prof. Segev says this important mission by Israel’s
“awesome President” is set for none other than success, as there is one thing
one can trust in Israel, and that is the insatiable curiosity and strong determination
to learn, which seemingly drives this nation forward. Segev’s only one wish,
however, would be to lift the political barriers here and to unleash the brain
power of the region which, in his opinion, hides unbelievable potential.
A question about whether he has any commercial
interests the Professor interposes with a categorical “no”.
“Who needs money”, he says, “when everything I need is already in my head?”
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